Apple HomePod Hits Stores in February, Available to Pre-Order on Friday

HomePod is available "at AU $499 in white and space grey and is available to order beginning Saturday, 27 January (AEDT), from apple.com/au and the Apple Store app".

Apple's HomePod claims to deliver "stunning audio quality", and offers hands-free voice control. Initially, the smart speaker was scheduled to hit the store shelves in December to benefit from the Holiday season. The AirPods earbuds also missed their promised ship date previous year and the AppleWatch, promised in early 2015, arrived late that April.

"We think they will be blown away by the audio quality", Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said in a blog post. Announced during WWDC 2017, it's a smart wireless speaker that has Siri built-in. Those who don't subscribe to Apple Music may have a tough time listening to music through the app, since it won't connect with Spotify, either.

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That said, Apple is launching the HomePod into a fairly well-saturated market.

With competition from other smart speakers heating up, it was starting to seem as though Apple was never going release its HomePod.

At launch, the HomePod won't support multi-room audio, which could be a real bummer for people with dreams of using a HomePod to control music throughout their home.

Apple's Siri has a commanding lead in availability over rivals by virtue of being featured on more than 1 billion iPhones and iPads. Using SiriKit, users also can obtain access to third-party apps via the speaker. It's also worth noting that macOS 10.13.3 also includes additional fixes for the Meltdown vulnerability - it's the bug that keeps on giving.

And the device's price, a steep $349, is much higher than the Amazon Echo ($99) or the Google Home ($129). The AmazonEcho has been available since November 2014, with Google launching Google Home most recently in November 2016. Basically, it supports three tap gestures - double-tap for next track, triple-tap for previous track and single tap for play/pause.

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You have to work for every point in a match. "I played flawless tennis, like I never stopped". "I get shivers", said Sharapova . Fellow former World No.1 Kerber, who won the tournament in 2016, was also impressive in dismissing Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-0, 6-4.

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Niec is a physician specializing in internal medicine at Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo , the Post reports. While conceding her husband has multiple blemishes, Rachelle insists that Niece is not a risk to the public.

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